The Challenger – Homemade

I had a failed attempt at making burrito sized tortilla so went with what seemed be a recipe that required much of the skills I appear to be lacking.

Soft Chewy Flour Tortilla (Fajita/Taco/Gordita) Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

3/4 cup milk

Directions: Add dry ingredients to mixer and set to low speed. Add wet ingredients to separate bowl, whish briefly and slowly add wet ingredients to mixer. If the dough is still sticky when you touch it add about a teaspoon of flour at a time until it no longer sticks to your fingers.

Knead the dough for about 2-3 minutes and place ball of dough on a plate and cover with mixing bowl and let it “rest” for 10 minutes.

After the dough “rests” cut the dough into 8 equal pieces. I did what seemed easiest to me:

Cut dough in half: 2 pieces

Cut those two pieces in half: 4 pieces

Cut those 4 pieces in half: 8 pieces.

Below you can see my 5 year old demonstrating this technique.

Next roll the pieces into balls and let them “rest” on that same plate for 20 more minutes.

Use a rolling pin (or 3/4 wooden dowel if you happen to have one) as thin as you can make them. Don’t worry they will thicken up when you cook them

The recommended method is to use a quality dry cast iron skilled on gas heat. Not having either of those, I went with my pancake griddle. Which from my first try I have a recommendation set the griddle to its highest setting. Otherwise by the time it starts to brown you will have some baked tortilla chips instead of tortilla shells. Though my daughters loved “my mistake” with a little butter.

Once they lightly browned, flip over and cook until the second side is brown. If you skilled is pretty warm this should take less than 30 seconds. Overall the cooking time was about 10 minutes.

Ingredient

Amount

Cost

Flour

2 cups

$ 0.249

Baking Powder

1.5 teaspoons

$ 0.048

Milk

3/4 cup

$ 0.140

Salt

1 teaspoons

$ 0.007

Vegetable Oil

2 teaspoons

$ 0.017

Electricity

510 watts

$0.030

Total Cost

$ 0.492

The Decision…

Store Bought

Homemade

Low Price

Great Taste

Low Prep Time

So just over $0.49 to make the same number of tortillas as the $3.39 store bought, that is over 6 times more. To date this is definitely the best cost savings and I must say the taste between the two is not even comparable to the nice warm tortillas off the griddle. Homemade is the hands down winner!

Just discovered your blog - very nice! I had hoped to write a blog much like this myself, but never have the time to blog much.

Anyway, I have recently started making tortillas myself (with quite exactly your recipe.) I hate the "rolling out" part, but found out that if you don't mind the unusual shape, then using a pasta maker works *excellently*. They come out nice and evenly thin.

I also find it vital to cook them as briefly as possible, otherwise they don't stay soft.

Kitchenlady, I agree I think overcooking was my downfall on the larger tortillas (alternate recipes) hot skillet minimal cooking seems to be the right strategy. I actually like the irregular shapes no one will doubt they are homemade :)

Hi Nice blog. I have to say your tortillas are nicely round considering it was your first time. I have been making homemade tortilla/roti for few years now, it took me almost 2 years to make them in round shape :)

I use whole wheat flour from Mayuri (Bellevue), it produces soft warm rotis.